CLAGS Spring 2013 Seminar in the City: Queer(ing) New York

Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS)
www.clags.org

Announcing the Spring 2013 Seminar in the City:

"Queer(ing) New York"
Wednesdays May 1st, 8th, 15th and 22nd
6:30-8:30pm
CUNY Graduate Center or watch via live stream

Course Website: http://jgieseking.org/CLAGSqNY
Follow us on Twitter: #CLAGSqNY
Register Here: http://jgieseking.org/CLAGSqNY/register/


"If I had my way...we would lock ourselves away from the madness out
there..."
-Armistead Maupin, Further Tales of the City (1994)

Of all the cities where lgbtq people have flourished, historian Robert
Aldrich has argued that "New York offered a prototype for American gay
cultures." While lgbtq studies has begun to extend itself to look at rural
places, much of the urban still remains to be accounted for, particularly
difference within the city. We must then queer the city in the way it
normalizes groups and spaces, and New York City is the exciting urban
environment to begin within. In this Seminar in the City, we will read
work that challenges and queers the normalized histories and spaces of
lgbtq life. How can we queer the neighborhood, bar, streets, and bodies
within it to tell stories of difference? How can a queer reading of the
spaces in New York City more radically account for difference?

Drawing on work from queer theory and lgbtq studies in geography,
sociology, anthropology, history, and literature studies, we will use the
city as a lens and site for our reading and research. No prior experience
in theoretical readings or site analysis is needed; an open, imaginative,
and inquisitive mind is mandatory.
You can take the course in-person or online. All readings will be provided.

Register at: http://jgieseking.org/CLAGSqNY/register/

Schedule of the Course:
May 1st: The City and the Bodies within It
May 8th: The Bar, the Institution, and the Space Between
May 15th: Street Life
May 22nd: The Demise of the Gayborhood? The Rise of a Queered Neighborhood?
Instructor Bio:
Jen Jack Gieseking, Ph.D., is Visiting Assistant Research Professor at the
Graduate Center of the City University of New York and hold a PhD in
environmental psychology. Her work as an urban cultural geographer and
environmental psychologist examines the everyday co-productions of space
and identity support or inhibit social, spatial, and economic justice with
a special focus on sexuality and gender. She is working on her first book,
Queer New York: Lesbians' and Queer Women's Constellations of Social and
Spatial Justice in New York City, 1983-2008.
Jack serves as the Project Manager for JustPublics@365, a partnership
between The Graduate Center of the City University of New York and the
Ford Foundation that rethinks scholarly communication in the digital era.
She can be found at
jgieseking.org and @jgieseking.

*All CLAGS events are free and open to the public.*